Although gear-shift control is ordinarily implemented in response to driving condition in a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission, freedom of gear shifting is narrow because the control is performed based on a gear-shift map defined in advance. Automatic transmissions that have a manual gear-shift mode in addition to an automatic gear-shift mode have therefore been proposed that enable implementation of gear-shift control reflecting the intention of the driver.
For example, the technology of Patent Literature 1 is configured to include a lever (paddle) for outputting an up-shift command or down-shift command in response to driver operation, thereby enabling sequential shifting matched to the intention of the driver among automatic transmission gear positions on both the high-speed side and low-speed side.